KH Drabbles
by MusexMoirai
Summary: Assorted short fics about misc. characters and scenarios from the game series. Expect a variety of pairings.
1. Puppets and Trinkets

**Title:** Puppets and Trinkets

**Word Count:** 423

**Notes:** For KH Drabble's "Puppet" challenge. Takes place in KH after the events of Hollow Bastion, goes up to the second visit to Beast's Castle.

---

After Kairi and her friends leave, Cinderella proves the most sensible of them and asks if anybody is hungry. She takes a count of hands before she descending down the grand staircase but returns half-an-hour later, rolling her eyes over a castle that lacks a kitchen.

Aurora mutters something about the ballroom looking very familiar between wide jaw-cracking yawns. Belle is about to ask her where she's seen it before when she feels a nudge at her shoulder.

It's Alice.

"If a heart in darkness without a body is called a heartless, then what do you call a body in darkness without a heart? "

It's not a question Belle's ever come across in all her years of book-reading. "A puppet?"

The English girl shakes her head. "No, I'm sure that's not it."

There is a loud thump. Jasmine has kicked over one of the capsules that held them captive and is now busy dismantling it. Snow White leans over her, breathily asking for a fragment as keepsake - something unusual to give to her beloved dwarfs.

Alice gives Belle a sweet smile before drifting off to join them.

---

When Sora returns to seal up the Keyhole, Belle peppers him with questions, wanting every answer she couldn't find by browsing through Hollow Bastion's considerable library. _What did her kidnappers look like? What had they wanted with her? Where were they now? Where was Kairi now? What was going to happen? _

He answers none of them to her satisfaction, but he is only a fourteen-year-old boy, after all.

She asks him Alice's question.

Sora scratches his head in confusion. "I don't know. I don't think things like that exist."

Belle knows now that they do. She imagines Xaldin's cruel sneer and jerks a little harder. The arm around her tightens.

It seems that she was right after all. Sora talks about Nobodies and Organizations and Darkness, but he hadn't been here when the Beast's eyes first went dull and unrecognizable. When the fragile trust she had built up with him had crumbled. When he had begun letting Xaldin think for him.

A hot frisson of anger runs through her. She is angry with the Beast. For allowing himself to be manipulated as completely as some plaything. Like a puppet. Xaldin pulls the strings and the Beast dances.

She is angry with herself. For being caught and used as barter. A pretty trinket with more form than function.

She's been here before - but she was unconscious then. She has no excuse this time.

Belle drives her elbow hard into Xaldin's side, grabs the rose, and takes off running.


	2. Not a Bad Plan, Really

**Title:** Not a Bad Plan, Really.

**Word Count:** 433

**Notes: **For KH Drabble's "Crash" challenge. How Axel goes about obtaining a heart. Spoilers for KHII: FM+ and Re:CoM.

---

The last thing Axel wonders before he fades away is if a heart that can't be stolen can be grown. He's not entirely sure what just happened, but he thinks he's won.

He likes to think that his is a noble death (though it is not without ulterior motive). It is, however, spectacular and fiery. And memorable.

The first problem with Saix is that he has no sense of humor. The second is that he's insufferably smug when inflicting damage. In retrospect, being turned into a Dusk might not've been so bad after all.

The timid canary and her darkness-stained friend are unexpected allies but Axel needs any foothold he can find in this upheaval. Besides, they all want the same thing, give or take an identity or two.

Kingdom Hearts takes away but never gives back. Surely Axel's not the only one who has a problem with this.

Demyx once sang about a man who went out looking for fear, only to discover that he had it in him all along. Xigbar teased him for it and ended up under a pile of water clones and Dancers. It's a good memory.

The sea-blue ice cream is a mess of contradictions (salty and sweet? at the same time?) and therein lies the appeal. A heart's not really much different.

Axel likes word games and obfuscation but abhors real illusions and that's maybe why he grins when Fake Thing holds Zexion up in the air by the throat and squeezes.

Marluxia is methodical in his own way (he can't help it - plants grow by their seasons) and slow to react to Axel's sudden, yet inevitable, betrayal. The Graceful Assassin had stumbled long before he even realized it.

The soft patter of Namine's feet is accompanied by some sensation Axel can't name. There it is again, nestled deep within his chest. Well, well, is this what they called a _feeling_? How funny.

Encounters with Roxas are like brushfire, the event itself vivid and jarring and the effects long-lingering. Axel doesn't mind when he starts caring; it's only the aftermath of the collision.

After Larxene had explained the memory chain concept to him (with the aid of illustrative electricity metaphors), he first comes up with the idea. All memories are connected to the heart - wedge himself into the hero's memories completely and he's sure to get a share when the happy ending rolls around.

Sora's eyes are very blue and his slashes are sure and confident. Axel smiles at the familiarity, lifts his chakrams, and meets him in an explosion of light and fire. He's gotta make this an introduction the Keyblade Master never forgets.


End file.
